This invention generally relates to washers and to a self-locking washer and its use.
Occasionally after mechanical equipment is assembled, it will be discovered that bolts are too long to tightly draw together the components they are connecting. A common solution to this problem would be to install washers in order to make up for the gap or to put in shorter bolts. Sometimes, however, the bolts are in difficult or totally inaccessible locations or for other reasons the bolts cannot be removed to add ordinary washers or to substitute shorter bolts. At other times the bolts may be in a hazardous or hostile environment, such as a radiation field or high temperature situation, such that the time required to correct the problem must be minimized. When any of these situations occur, one thing that can be done is to install split washers. However, ordinary split washers are themselves difficult to install. When the bolts are tightened they tend to spin out from the bolt head due to the compression of the washer and the rotation.
The invention described below overcomes these problems.